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Laptop Messenger Bag

About: Furniture, fabric, architecture, building, painting. I specialize in upholstery design, restyling, repurposing and writing all about upholstery. I teach loads of upholstery classes all week long and also te...
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Make a style savvy Laptop Messenger Bag with recycled leather, a quilted flap and a mod oversized button.What you need:1/2 yard of fabric1/2 yard of quilted lining fabricleather for cutting up (Goodwill is a good source)Giant button (Joann Fabric)ThreadSewing Machine

This bag is being delivered tomorrow to a woman who ordered it for her daughter headed off to I.U. I used the fabric for something young and fun. Any medium weight fabric would work.

Step 1: Bag With Leather Boxing Attached

Cut two rectangles out of printed fabric 1" larger, all around, than you want the finished bag. Cut the band or boxing for the bag from recycled leather garments. Stitch front of bag to boxing. After stitching pocket on back, stitch back of bag to other edge of leather boxing.

Step 2: Recycled Leather Pocket Stitched on Back of Bag

Center and stitch recycled leather pocket to back of bag to hold CD's or power cord.

Step 3: Quilted Lining

Cut and stitch quilted lining to be inserted into bag.

Step 4: Quilted Flap

Cut two flap pieces and one cotton batting piece and stitch all together in this order: right sides of front and back flap together with a piece of batting pinned and stitched on either the wrong side of fabric top or bottom. Stitch, clip seam, turn right side out and machine quilt the top of the flap.

Step 5: Pin Flap to Bag for Stitching

Place quilted lining inside of bag, wrong side to wrong side. Top edge of both bag and lining should be folded over 1" and pressed. Insert flap between lining and back of bag so that it will fold over front of bag when stitched in place.

Step 6: Stitch Button on Flap

After topstitching 1/4" all around top of bag, catching lining and flap in stitching, handsew giant button onto middle of flap for weight to hold flap down.

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9 Discussions

Love the recycled pocket. You could make this whole thing out of a $20 thrift store leather coat, reusing the belt as the strap, and so on.
Interesting choice of laptop orientation. Do you find that it's easier to carry longways, rather than sideways? My 4 lb laptop always feels five times heavier by the time I get to my destination.
:-)

I agree on the heaviness.There's no getting around it. The way this crosses over the other shoulder and rides on the hip helps with the weight. I've done it both ways, horizontal and vertical. Vertical bag looks better in my opinion. Whatever way works for you.
True about the all leather carrier, but I try to use my leather for trims and edging--it's like gold.
The fabric was CHEAP!! 15.00 a yard.
Thanks for your comment. Visit my other projects on www.curbly.com--lots of upholstery projects. :)

Hey, this is so clever. Despite what has been said I think the floral look, or any fabric other than the usual plain corporate look, is a great camouflage for an expensive laptop/netbook. Like putting your camcorder into a hippy-style bag. Who would guess there may be something worth stealing in their??? The style of strap is a matter of personal comfort really and it would be soooo easy to alter to horizontal or vertical style bag. This would also apply to fabric, so what if flowers don't gel with all tastes, there are so many fabrics to choose from out there.
GO THERE.....you've done a great job with this!!!!!

Thanks for your comments. I ended up selling this to a girl who was headed off to college. I wonder how it's held up. I agree with you about NOT having a plain corporate looking laptop bag. Gotta be different!!! Thanks again.

Wow. I was just looking around for laptop bag projects, and this is eerily close to the bag of my dreams--flowers and all.
I don't think my sewing skills are quite up to this, but I'm going to shoot for a dumbed down version, at least.
Thank you!

You can COMPLETELY do it. It's just a bag inside of a bag with the exception that there is a leather strap stitched in the middle. I even had to make some adjustments for the girl I made it for. :)
You can always email me if you have a question.